Malaysia faces challenges as top Asean destination for data centre investments

[KUALA LUMPUR] Even as Malaysia has emerged as the most attractive country in South-east Asia to invest in data centres, observers say the government and the private sector need to raise their game to maintain this lead in the face of growing competition from the region.

In April this year, property consultancy Knight Frank listed Malaysia as the top destination for data centre investment of the so-called “South-east Asia 5” group of countries, followed by Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Malaysia had 113 megawatts of data centre take-up in 2022, more than four times greater than the next highest market, Thailand.